文件与报告库

Economists to the ‘Core’?: Humor and Creativity at the World Bank (英语)

摘要

The records of the World Bank Group maintain and communicate the Bank’s institutional memory through their evidential and informational qualities. These records, in the form of correspondence, research materials, reports, meeting minutes and countless...
更多显示The records of the World Bank Group maintain and communicate the Bank’s institutional memory through their evidential and informational qualities. These records, in the form of correspondence, research materials, reports, meeting minutes and countless others, are the products of business activities and can therefore seem, at times, bureaucratic and dry. This is, however, not always the case. At times, the collegial nature of the Bank environment and the clever, creative, and comedic personalities of its employees shine through the otherwise esoteric materials. King’s subject files on the Bell Mission Report cover a variety of topics, including India’s industrial and agricultural production, debt repayment, trade, and a variety of economic forecasts. In the correspondence reproduced here, the issue of India’s shortage of foreign exchange is discussed between King and his colleagues in the Economics and South Asia Departments. These records would be of interest to any number of academics and historians studying the development of India’s economy in the middle of the twentieth century and the World Bank’s role in it. However, these letters are also a fine example of both the intellectual vitality of the Bank experts who wrote them and the respect and humor shared between colleagues. What started as a serious conversation about India’s “core” industries, evolves into a series of inside jokes and puns based on the word “core.” This exhibit was originally published in December 2012.
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